NORTH CAROLINA: Killer Says Mucinex Overdose + Gay Panic Made Him Do It

Nineteen year old Michael Anderson (left) has confessed to the murder of Stephen Starr, 35, in Hickory, North Carolina, telling a police dispatcher that it was an overdose of Mucinex combined with Starr's unwanted advances that caused him to shoot and hack Starr to death.

Starr was found in bed in what law enforcement has described as one of the most gruesome crime scenes they’ve seen in years. Anderson was charged with Starr’s murder Monday afternoon and has his first court appearance Wednesday morning. Anderson called 911 while next to Starr’s body in the master bedroom, with a gun still in his hands, according to the 911 call. Anderson was holding the pistol, Fish said. In the call, Anderson says he took some pills that “made me go mad.” He tells the woman at the communications center that he shot his roommate three times and then used an ax and mutilated his body. “I Od’d on Mucinex DM. Dextromethorphan makes me feel a little weird and I took too many,” Anderson said.

About 4 minutes and 30 seconds into the call, the telecommunicator asks what sparked the attack. Anderson said it was because he was straight, and Starr was gay. According to him, the two met at a gay club. Anderson said he was straight, but went to the club to experiment. “I met him and went to his house and he took me in and I turned straight again. And he wanted to touch me and stuff and I wouldn’t let him, and he kept trying. And I waited until he went to sleep and then I shot him three times. And I mutilated him very badly and I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Oh God, please help me.”

The comments on the above-linked newspaper article are predictably filled with citations of Leviticus and kindly Christian admonitions that the deceased had it coming. Here's Anderson's 911 call to report having committed the murder.